Psychodynamic Theory and Trait Theory of Personality

Psychodynamic Theory and Trait Theory of constitutionThe purpose of this paper is to understand the deportment exhibited in a specialized case study using Freuds psychodynamic possible action and Allports trait theory of disposition. Personality is defined as the thoughts, feelings and deportment of an individual that perseveres all over time and different situations (Perelberg Ebooks, 2008). Following a summary of the case study the paper will provide a brief overview of apiece theory and go into detail about how each theory explains the behaviour and disposition of Judy, a mother who is the focus of the case study.Judy loves laveing her house. She desires receiving compliments regarding her cleanliness. Judy spends every weekend cleaning. Whenever guests were invited over Judy would spend a lot of time and effort making sure her house was spotless. She would instruct the kids on acceptable conversation and gear up frequent family meetings. Judy did not understand why o ther family members wouldnt crap cleaning seriously. A neighbour once accidently left grass clippings on her drive lawn which resulted in Judy ignoring that neighbour for two years. Even though the family were not in any financial troubles Judy would force everyone to take extreme measures to save money. Judy would get afflictive when her friends didnt invite her to dinner parties. She frequently criticises her friends and does not understand why someone would not want to be her friend.The send-off theory that will be discussed is Freuds psychodynamic theory. Psychodynamic theory explains personality by focusing on the conscious and unconscious motivation behind human behaviour, feeling and emotion (Shelder, 2010). Freud stressed that the opinion is not a single construct, but is in fact made up of separate components. These mental processes be fuelled by sexual and aggressive urges. These urges groundwork from instinctual and biological drives (Perelberg Ebooks, 2008). Some of these urges may be unacceptable on a conscious level and atomic number 18 repressed into the unconscious where they build up over time until they influence thoughts, feelings or behaviour.The judgement is divided into three components that house these urges. The id is an unconscious component that seeks pleasure. The super self-importance is constructed from internalised rules and expectations. The ego mediates between the unconscious urges of the id and the firm rules of the superego. The interactions between these components pay back human personality and behaviour. This model on human behaviour is called Freuds Structural Model (Freud, 1961).Freud proposed that adult human behaviour is influenced by childhood experiences (Freud Hall, 2014). specifically he proposed a model where childhood sexual festering would influence adulthood personality and behaviour. Inadequate development in a psychosexual layer would result in a fixation that would negatively influence behaviou r and personality later on in life.In order to deal with these issues the mind can employ a range of defence mechanisms. Defence mechanisms are unconscious processes that distort reality to reduce unpleasant feelings and thoughts such as care (Freud, 1992). These processes arise from the ego. Anxiety and other unpleasant feelings are a result of the id or superego becoming too demanding and causing distress.The second location that will be utilize is Allports Trait Theory. Allports theory suggests that human behaviour and personality is influenced by emotional, cognitive and behavioral tendencies called traits (Allport Allport, 1921). A trait can either be a predisposition to be deplete in a certain manner or it could be a personality characteristic. These traits can be used to obtain an understanding of a subjects overall personality.Allport arrange these traits into a hierarchical structure with three levels. Cardinal traits lie at the clear of the hierarchy and are traits that govern an individuals full-length behaviour or personality (Allport, 1966). Most people dont have primaeval traits but if they do they generally only have a singular trait that dictates their behaviour and personality. The next level of traits is called central traits. These consist of general characteristics of personality present in most individuals. These traits affect behaviour the most (Allport, 1937b). The last level of traits is secondary traits which are characteristics that are only apparent when in shock with specific external stimuli. These secondary traits can conflict with central traits when activated and account for uncommon displays of behaviour which may contradict overall personality.A study theme of Allports theory is that of functional autonomy, which states that adult behaviour and personality is not related to earlier experiences but behaviour first started as a drive for a separate motive which over time the desire for the drive outgrows the motive r esulting in the drive being separate, or autonomous from the trustworthy drive (Allport, 1937a). Since the original motive for the behaviour is lost it is difficult to find the source or reasoning behind behavioural traits.Freud will be the first theorist that will be used to discuss Judys behaviours and personality. Freud explains Judys excessive cleanliness due to an unretentive development of the anal stage of psychosexual development in childhood (Freud Hall, 2014). In the anal stage, which lasts from 18 months to three years of age the child is learning to become toilet trained which is the first metre in autonomy from parents. Properly developing this skill leads to a sense of accomplishment and independence.The outcome of this stage is dependent on the methods employed by the parents to thatched roof bowl control (Freud Hall, 2014). If parents are too strict then the child may develop an anal-retentive personality which results in the child being orderly, rigid and obses sive. In this case study Judy is showing signs of an anal-retentive personality by her obsession on having a clean house and her strict rules on where items go in the kitchen.This behaviour is maintained by her superego which dominates her thoughts, feelings and behaviour (Freud, 1961). Judys strict rules on cleanliness and order may be the reason why she is so controlling in the familys financial situation, due to her strict nature on cleanliness carrying over to other aspects of her life such as finance.Judy maintains order by frequently organising family meetings which are an outlet for her unconscious desires of order to manifest. Her feelings regarding her relationships with other people are repressed into her unconscious where they build up and come out via criticism to Sarah, her daughter or to the recipients face.Judy seeks compliment from her guests. This approval is a major part of her id. Judy pursues approval for her id by using strict rules from her superego to gather compliments regarding her home.Judys quest for approval results in anxiety from keeping a clean house and frustration from guests not inviting her to dinner. Anxiety is a threat to the ego from impulses generated by the id (Freud, 1992). She uses defence mechanisms to reduce anxiety. Defence mechanisms are an unconscious process that distorts reality so that the threat impulses to the ego do not become conscious (Freud, 1992). Whenever someone does not want her friendship Judy uses self-abnegation to ignore any criticisms she may have said which resulted in her loss of friendship. She may repress any memories where she acted in a way that is not friendly.To tuck more information a psychodynamic psychologist would use performance establish measures such as a projective test or free association (MacCann, Matthews, Zeidner, Roberts, 2003). Performance based measures divulge underlying attitudes and implicit motivations due to their indirect nature. These tests do not provide inform ation about what the subject is thinking or feeling.A specific measure that would be used to gather more information is free association (Oxburgh Dando, 2011). Free association is a psychoanalytic technique where the individual is allowed to verbalise about whatever thoughts come to mind. This is an indirect measure that can provide information on an individuals thoughts and feelings. The therapist would listen and take notes to turn out and find any underlying unconscious motivation to gain a better understanding of the individuals personality and behaviour. This method can reveal dispositions about personality and behaviour that an individual is not consciously aware of possessing.The second theorist that will be used is Allport. Judy is obsessive to the point that it is classed as a cardinal trait. Her obsessive trait affects nearly every other aspect of her personality and behaviour. Her main high central traits are authoritative, economical, cleanly and sociable, which are a ll affected by her cardinal trait. These trait names are from Allports list of trait names that best define personality (Allport Odbert, 1936).Judys authoritative trait is evident in the way she informs her children on proper conversation topics and when organising family meetings to discuss the proper procedure and location of items. Her economical trait is shown by dint of her strict rules governing her familys finances. This is a clear example of how her cardinal trait has affected a central trait to the extreme. The trait of cleanliness is clearly shown to be an important trait of her personality as evident by her passionate cleaning ritual. Her sociability has a secondary trait where she gets angry when someone disrupts her clean home, shown by the neighbour who she ignored for two years. Judy also gets frustrated when other family members dont see the value in keeping the home organized and clean, further supporting her secondary trait.One method to gain more information on Judys personality and behaviour can be to disseminate a self-report inventory such as the California Personality Inventory (CPI). The CPI is an inventory that measures personality traits (Groth-Marnat Mullard, 2010). The questions on the CPI relate to normal behaviours, feelings and attitudes regarding family and affable matters.Self-report inventories directly measure how a person thinks and feels (MacCann, et al., 2003). Due to this explicit method the inventory is a good way to identify personality states and other behavioural traits that they can recognize about themselves.The two different perspectives share many quasi(prenominal)ities in their assessment of Judys behaviour and personality. Both perspectives conclude that her obsessive trust on strict rules is a major factor in her philosophy on financial matters. Both perspectives believe that a certain characteristic (obsessiveness/cleanliness), dominates her whole personality and its effect carries over into other aspec ts of her personality and behaviour. Lastly both perspectives agree that her frustration at not being invited out to dinner parties by her friends is social in nature.Although the two perspectives seem to come to similar conclusions regarding Judys behaviour there are a couple of major differences. Freuds perspective believes that her obsession towards cleanliness is due to a childhood experience concerning toilet training while Allport believes that cardinal traits such as this are developed later on in life and due to functional autonomy it is not possible to find out the cause of this trait.Freuds theory has many positive benefits. It is a theory that is based on experimental psychology and it explains characteristics of personality (Freud Hall, 2014). Unfortunately the theory has an overemphasis on the unconsciousness and relies too heavily on childhood experiences (Perelberg Ebooks, 2008). The theory is mainly backed by data gathered via case studies and clinical observations which are not reliable as data gathered from a blanket(a) range of sources.Allports theory is based on objective and statistical data (Allport, 1966). There are no biases compared to Freud whose relationship with his mother is said to have greatly influenced his work (Allport Allport, 1921). The theory can account for any behavioural or personality aspect with traits. The theory itself is easy to understand and can be used with many different assessment measures.There are a few negative connotations with Allports perspective. The theory is a poor predictor of future personality and behaviour since the theory does not explain how traits are maintained (Bertocci, 1940). The theory does not discuss how the traits themselves have developed nor does the theory explain how personality works due to functional autonomy. There is also some discrepancy on the consistency of traits although that is partially explained via secondary traits. Allports theory does not take into account ecologi cal, social or situational factors that may affect behaviour or personality. The definition of trait is broad and includes attitudes, habit and other tendencies such as take in under one classification which may decrease the validity of traits.Freuds perspective states that Judys major behavioural and personality attributes are due to an inadequate development in her childhood anal psychosexual development stage which has caused Judy to exhibit an anal-retentive personality that affects her behaviour negatively. Her behaviour results in the production of anxiety and Judy uses ego defence mechanisms to reduce anxiety. More information about Judys personality and behaviour can be gathered via free association.Allports perspective suggests that Judys behaviour and personality is due to a cardinal trait of obsessiveness which affects every other aspect of her personality from keeping her house clean and organised to managing her familys finances. More information about Judys personalit y can be gained by conducting a self-report inventory on personality.Both perspectives focused on different aspects of Judys personality. Freuds theory focused on the unconscious motivation behind Judys actions while Allport looked at the actions in detail. They both came to similar conclusions in that Judy is obsessive and that this is negatively affecting her relationships.ReferencesAllport, F. H., Allport, G. W. (1921). Personality Traits Their Classification and Measurement. 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